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How’s that for an episode that will make your head spin? After a slow-building first few acts, Revenge kicked into gear with a fast-paced, intricate series of events that led to the demise of a key Emily adversary.

Mason Treadwell may have a hard time finding “Penance” in the true sense of the word, but the slimy author has no choice but to work on it. After Emily’s elaborate scheme, he has little else to do … indefinitely.

The closer he got to the truth, the more obvious it became that Mason had to be dealt with. Amanda almost finished the job, Frank/Beaver Dam style, until Emily took over and did it her way. Probably for the best.

Not a lot of shows can generate so many rapid-fire twists while having them somehow fit the overall narrative and keeping you invested in the characters, based on what you know of their respective endgames.

The final 15 minutes of tonight’s installment in a nutshell:

Emily came clean to Mason! Mason came clean to Kara! Kara went rogue! Nolan framed Mason! Aiden stopped Kara with seconds to spare and convinced her to leave town! Emily coerced Mason into falsely confessing!

At last! Christina and Meredith are reunited. Before breaking for the 30-second dance party, let’s revisit the events that led Christina to get past her fear of flying (for now) and head back to Seattle.

While Christina found her car buried under several feet of Minnesota snow, Meredith found a woman who was literally buried under a car. As Meredith rallied others to save the injured woman, Feeny showed up and saved Christina with a warm, snow-free car and a delicious pastry. Seriously, is there anything that George Feeny can’t make better? Considering this is the last time we’ll see Feeny on Grey’s Anatomy, it might be nice if I referred to him by the proper character name – Thomas.

The episode’s opening moments led to a memorable day for the two best friends. Like Dr. Webber and other staffers, I too was worried that Meredith was too emotionally invested in saving Melissa. The image of her trapped beneath the car immediately led me to thoughts of Lexie.

Meanwhile, Thomas continued to surprise Christina by my managing to actually teach the woman who thinks she knows it all. Thomas was clearly invigorated by Christina’s presence, taking on riskier surgeries and finding joy in his work despite Parker’s crass efforts to force the elder statesman into retirement.

South Park has certainly seen its ups and downs this season, featuring both moments of brilliance and mediocrity. Fortunately, “Obama Wins!” brought out the big guns and delivered strong, mostly thanks to the serendipitous timing of two very important events: the 2012 General Election… and the Disney buyout of Lucasfilm. Of course, when you really think about it, Matt Stone and Trey Parker would have been idiots not to combine these two topics for their season finale.

Having said that, expectations were high following the announcement that Season 16 would conclude with another election episode. After 2008’s “About Last Night…” — an episode that showed Barack Obama winning the presidency one night after the election had actually occurred — one couldn’t help but wonder if they could possibly top themselves, especially on such a tight deadline. Thankfully, they did, and that decision paid off in spades. Indeed, Cartman’s ballot heist was almost clever enough to work on its own (as do most episodes painting his character as an evil mastermind). But in addition to this, Matt and Trey had their ace in the hole, and that was Star Wars.

Truthfully, this episode did feel like it was structured to work regardless of which candidate won the election, and that was a smart move on the creators’ part. Fortunately, most of the plot points were centered around Cartman’s hidden ballots and his under-the-table negotiations with Disney and the Chinese. However, there were just enough references to the election to make this episode feel up-to-the-minute; details like including the hair flag lady, for instance, were a nice touch. Likewise, depicting Governor Romney as the s***-quacking duck from last season’s “You’re Getting Old” was not only a stroke of genius, but probably a joke that would have been cut had the election panned out otherwise.

Greetings Supernatural family! Still alive out there? Usually when I hear that we’re getting a Garth episode, I think fun and easy laughs. This episode of Supernatural was NOT the lighthearted experience I originally expected. And while an incredibly well done episode, this one was pain. It was angst. It was sadness. And it left a lot to discuss and mull over. And worry about. Don’t forget to worry.

The boys ran into Garth while working a case that doesn’t really matter much except that like in season 4’s “Sex & Violence,” it gave Dean an excuse to say to Sam every damn thing he had bottled up since returning from purgatory. This week’s bickering started with an argument about Benny. I’m a little upset at the writers for forgetting that time in season 2 (2×03 – “Bloodlust”) when Sam convinced Dean not to kill Lenore because she was a good vampire. Sam doesn’t know dick about Benny at this point. Why is he so butt hurt about it? Has Amelia changed him so much that he’s now seeing Dean’s former colors of black & white only? Dean’s ability to see more gray now makes perfect sense (is that why they colored Purgatory that way?) especially now that we’ve spent more time with Benny. Sam had a point about Amy. Maybe Dean understands that better now? But why doesn’t Sam? I am still waiting for a better explanation. Maybe not for why Sam didn’t look for Dean but certainly for why he turned off all the phones. And it’s not that I don’t enjoy the fighting on some dark, messed up level. I really do. Bring the angst. Especially this kind, the kind that makes me squirm in my seat and wring my hands. But I’m ruining my chair. And my fingers hurt.

The worst part about all of the fighting is that it’s really kind of hard to pick a side (mostly). Everything Dean says to Sam is really harsh and cuts right to the bone. But it’s ALL TRUE. And sometimes the truth is really hard to hear spoken out loud, no matter how much it repeats in the back of your mind. Even certain things like, “Benny has been more of a brother this past year than you have EVER been,” isn’t exactly right and we know that but it probably felt true to Dean at the time. That is devastating. I am still not crazy about Amelia but seeing more of her time with Sam gives us a better sense of his mindset during that period. You really kind of get the feeling that he believed he had legit lost his brother this time. Dean really shouldn’t be able to brush off his lying so easily though. I’m glad that Sam confronted Dean at the end. Dean needs to be yelled at sometimes. Though, telling Dean to move on or he will seems just a touch unfair to me. And I feel like nothing was really resolved? They’re both still mad. They’re both carrying a lot of weight around. All of it very difficult to let go. They need therapy and I feel like they should pay for mine as well.

In a very special Halloween episode of New Girl, we find Jess working at a Haunted House in town and still trying to hook up with Sam. They’re trying to keep their hook-ups sex only, but when Jess meets him at his workplace, she finds out he is this awesome pediatrician with a great rapport with kids and starts to fall for him – just a little – or perhaps, just a lot. Unfortunately, Nick discovers something about Sam that will put the kibosh on Jess’ hopes to further the relationship.

Jess has added “haunted house zombie” to her growing list of odd jobs this season, and the roomies are quick to joke, telling her she looks like “Zombie Woody Allen” and busting out their best Jewish, neurotic imitations of the comedy writer. Schmidt’s “These brains are terrible, and in such small portions” wins the gold, but Nick, Jess and even Winston give great efforts, too. Jess invites the guys to her haunted house — free admission for friends of zombie staff! — before skipping off to hook up with Sam, the no-strings-attached sex buddy she picked up a few episodes ago.

The latter also faced the frightening prospect of actually confronting his feelings, only this time they were in the negative sense. It takes a lot to tell a woman you don’t like her, but painful lip biting will definitely do it. With these two single, many in the New Girl universe will be pushing for the inevitable Nick and Jess hookup to take place in the very near future. But why mess with a good thing, which the show clearly has going for it now? Remember the lesson Nick learned tonight: it’s easy to be let down by what you think you always wanted.

Cece, too, was surprised Sam had such a noble profession. “I had him pegged for a part-time tennis pro or an unemployed handsome guy,” she said. In classic dumb-sitcom-girl fashion, Jess decided the best course of action to keep this hot, smart, sexually willing and able man around would be to test him. She invited him to the last night of her haunted house. If he showed up in costume, that would mean they had potential as a couple. And if he didn’t… well I think we all knew where this was going several episodes back. Or did we? Sam did show, and, yeah, his costume (a clown nose) was a little half-assed, but it still gave Jess enough hope to believe she had a shot. To be continued…

Sunday, Revenge did its best to reach new heights in deceitful entertainment. “Forgiveness” proves that ending old drama just makes room for a new one. Unexpected revelations played a major part in last night’s phenomenal show. So what made this episode so splendid?

Last night we welcomed the newest of several new cast members to the “Hamptons,” young Carl. Emily’s reaction to Carl sincerely cracked me up “He’s somethin'” is maybe the most heartless reaction to a newborn baby I’ve ever heard. Poor Carl! Carl. Isn’t Carl the funniest name in the world? Maybe I’m just associating it with Karl Pilkington. Well, at least Carl was born to an alert and alive mom, who despite ping-pong-balling her way down two stories of marble and oak seemed completely okay. The attempted-child-murdering arms of his grandma were also waiting for him, as the Hamptons’ most lovable psychopath to date had invited herself over to Victoria’s mansion for a goofy and confusing tete-a-tete.

Meanwhile, Victoria Grayson—she of the full luscious lips and riveting cat eyes that deliver pure evil, gets a visit from Kara Clarke (real Amanda’s psychotic mom). Surprise, surprise—since Victoria was Kara’s deceased husband’s mistress—they exchange a warm hug and cordial greeting—even though Victoria thought Kara was long dead. But Victoria can handle any situation with grace and icy charm. By the way, I wouldn’t mind cultivating her killer look to deal with annoying people who sometimes cross my path. Her expressions are cool and deadly, pure bitch! I love it!

Safe to say this wasn’t in Vicky’s master plan. Under the impression that the white-haired man remains alive and that Kara is feeding him information, she and Conrad hatched a plan to remarry … for legal reasons. By tying the knot, they can’t be forced to testify against each other if and when the Initiative (or the FBI) comes calling. After Conrad’s romantic proposal, there couldn’t have been a dry eye in the house. So touching.

“Big Bang Theory” star Jim Parsons is one of the most talented comic actors working on television today, but former astronaut Buzz Aldrin delivered the funniest lines in “The Holographic Excitation,” stealing the show in this week’s Halloween-themed episode.

So Howard was back from space, but he was lacking a proper outlet to get his full space-squee on since his ability to hijack any conversation and turn it into Space Adventures with Buzz Wolowitz of Star Command was practically a science and everyone was really sick of it—except Sheldon and Leonard, if only because they got a kick out of experimenting on it. But alas, even that amusement passed and Howard came to realize that it was almost time to go back to being boring old regular Howard.

As awesome as she was, I really wanted Bernadette to slap her husband over the head with the fact that while going into space was a major deal, being married and starting a family were also huge adventures that deserved just as much of his attention and enthusiasm. She didn’t, of course; she just looked adorable in her Smurf costume and forgave him for being such a tool. She also made sure he saw a clip on Youtube of Buzz Aldrin handing out Halloween candy and making a reference to his own trip into space. Pun intended, it brought Howard right back down to Earth. (This was a brilliant cameo, by the way, as they usually are on this show.)

Elsewhere in the episode, the writers still haven’t figured out what to do with Leonard and Penny–after having her decide to break up with Leonard a few weeks ago and then have sex with him instead, their shenanigans in this episode should’ve been a positive sign that they were on the mend, but without any insight into why Penny has changed her mind, it just feels hollow. It feels almost as if she’s just using him for sex, or else only sleeping with him because otherwise she’ll remember why she wanted to end the relationship.

Wolowitz suffered from the inevitable post-astronaut bout of depression. It was easy to sympathize with the other characters, as his perpetual space babbling really did start to get annoying after a while. The writers could probably have toned down this portion of the episode and focused more on the other characters, if not excised it completely. Granted, if Wolowitz was a little more obnoxious than usual, at least Sheldon and Raj were able to have some fun dragging him back down to Earth, as it were.

Supernatural has done werewolf episodes, but never quite like this. “Bitten” is the kind of outside-the-box, stylistically special episode that I love. Nearly the entire hour is told through found home movie footage by a bunch of film students at a college. It’s basically Supernatural’s take on The Blair Witch Project, Cloverfield and other similar movies.

Dean and Sam walked into the gory aftermath of what appeared to be a horrific supernatural murder in a house shared by three college students, Brian, Kate, and Mike. HOORAY FOR GORE. That was some high-quality gore. First-rate. Really. Good gore and grainy handheld footage just push all of my Halloween buttons. (Maybe they should have saved this one for next week?) Unlike so many Supernatural episodes, “Bitten” was actually frightening in the psychological sense, rather than in the OMG WEREWOLVES sense. It was scary the way (literary-nod-of-the-week) Lord of the Flies is scary: When the game of life changes, people can be pretty awful to each other.

So going into this found-footage episode, which I knew would be told largely from the perspective of three college kids who were making a film, I was already anticipating (and not too happy with the idea of) minimal amounts Sam and Dean. I tried to keep an open mind about it, however, and I’m happy to report that the lack of Sam and Dean didn’t bother me as much as I thought it would. In fact, I enjoyed seeing some moments that we normally don’t.

Brian has found his movie—Mike’s origin story—and sets cameras up. However, he also wants to do what he can and wants to go into the woods to get bit. Mike refuses. Sam and Dean stop by to ask questions—anything unusual, anyone get bit—and as they’re leaving, Kate tapes them talking about another Mayan god. That leads Mike to think he’s a god. However, that night, he begins changing—eyes, teeth, and fingernails—and punches the bathroom mirror. After he eats a lot, he runs into Scott on the street. Scott follows him in the woods, and Mike attacks.

Grey’s Anatomy returned with “Love the One You’re With” an episode that made you question when it’s okay to settle and when it’s not. For one thing, viewers did not have to settle for this episode. Derek (Patrick Dempsey), Meredith (Ellen Pompeo), Owen (Kevin McKidd), Christina (Sandra Oh) and Callie (Sara Ramirez) are force to make an agreement whether they will take a settlement for the plane crash or continue with an investigation. There are many factors to consider, including the loss of two of their own and Arizona’s (Jessica Capshaw) leg.

But why was the episode so good? Well, I could have just been in a really good mood as I was watching — I’m generally a sunny-side person! — but it seemed to have the right mix, the perfect balance of funny moments, heartfelt moments, and a bunch of other only-on-Grey’s moments. And that’s what it was about while I was taking notes: moments. I found myself zeroing in on a string of really great instances that touched. So let’s examine those particular examples, specifically, as a way to recap last night’s hour.

Of course, it came as no surprise that April’s decision to “forget” that she and Jackson had sex and plan to “re-virginize” herself would not last a single episode. I’m actually rooting for this couple. Let’s hope they both make it out of this season alive and not completely scarred by their relationship. Exactly how many seasons did it take Shonda Rhimes to finally put Derek and Meredith in a happy, normal, fully-functioning relationship?

Cristina’s still in Minnesota, but thanks to the wonders of Skype and cell phones, she’s very much in the loop at Seattle Grace. It’s not just Meredith who’s keeping her updated either; she and Owen are having regular chats (even when he’s with patients — rude), hinting that they’re starting to get comfortable with each other again. A little too comfortable, perhaps, because Cristina puts the kibosh on their interactions, asserting that she’s staying in Minnesota. Yeah, right.

April returns to the hospital and plays a cat-and-mouse love-game with Avery. She claims she’s re-virginizing herself, but the two end up making out before the day is done. (That was the shortest cat-and-mouse game in the history of the world!)

You’d think that being happy would be a cornerstone of the Hart of Dixie DNA. I mean, this is a warm, fluffy CW dramedy that takes place in an amiable southern town with romance to spare. However, this season of Hart of Dixie has found several characters lacking direction and trying to figure out what makes them happy. They may be in an environment that seems like the place to go to find your smile again, but that doesn’t stop the issues that have come to the surface this season regarding who they are, who they want to be, and how they might go about achieveing the life that they’ve always wanted to live.

The episode begins with some gratuitous shirtless Wade (Wilson Bethel) painting in Zoe’s apartment. Even Zoe (Rachel Bilson) tells him to put his shirt on. He doesn’t. But as Lavon (Cress Williams) points out when she heads into the main house, she just wants him to put on a shirt because they aren’t having sex anymore. Zoe is shocked and appalled!

Zoe is determined to impress a reviewer from her alumni magazine after finding out that she is being described as retired. This storyline is full of potential, but it falls flat in the episode. Zoe says the interviewer is going to follow her around, but he doesn’t. It could have been hilarious to see Zoe with a full day of cases or making a house call with the reporter behind her making comments or just being a fish out of water like Zoe was when she first arrived. Instead the reporter is only in three scenes, and he really is not that entertaining. Did you have high hopes for this storyline?

The second emotional scene was the one between Annabeth and Lemon. I was disappointed in the digression that was made with Lemon this week. Last week she was ready to be on her own, move on, and forget about George… but here she was back at square one. She couldn’t bare the thought of George dating someone and made it her mission to beat him. I had a big problem with this at first and then at the end Annabeth said was I was thinking: that when Lemon set her mind to something, she could do it and was capable of doing it. Good call Annabeth.